In the farming industry, maintaining optimal soil conditions to maximize crop yields is highly important. By maintaining optimal soil conditions, crops are able to receive adequate nutrients that are essential for healthy growth, which in turn leads to sustained crop production. Examples of good soil quality can include, for example, good soil tilth, adequate planting depths, limited plant pathogens, and good soil drainage, wherein the absence of any of such conditions can lead to failed germination. For example, at shallower trench depths, greater moisture and temperature fluctuations can be experienced, thereby causing crop damage. Therefore, there is a growing need in the farming industry for agricultural apparatuses and systems that are capable of monitoring soil conditions and performing accurate depth measurements.
To address such concerns, some conventional approaches utilize down pressure measurements and mechanical design to infer planting depth. For example, certain mechanical apparatus, such as feeler gages, potentiometers, linear position sensors and ultrasonic range finders, are susceptible to inaccurate depth measurements, which tend to decrease yields of crops planted with inaccurate seed depths. Therefore, there still exists a need in the art for a system that is capable of performing precise real-time depth measurements.